MO' For Your Money

Yamaha's much-loved Motif-series workstation synths have achieved industry-standard status for their rich, deep soundsets. But at $2000 and up, a Motif is prohibitively expensive for the typical gigging musician. What's a cash-strapped keyboardist to do? Enter the Yamaha MOX6. One of the most powerful lightweight workstations around, the MOX6 packs the same 1200+ sounds, powerful arpeggiators, and 256 Performance presets from the Motif XS into a 15-pound package that you can carry under your arm. In fact, Yamaha calls the MOX6 "the mobile Motif." But an MOX6 is much more than a gigging workhorse: the on-board 16-track sequencer is at your service as a composition sketchpad, while the built-in 4-in/2-out USB audio interface and bundled Cubase AI software make the MO' the heart of your home studio. All told, the Yamaha MOX6 is simply the most cost-effective way to expand your stage and studio soundset to Motif-size magnitude.

MOTIF-quality Sounds And Effects

If you're familiar with Yamaha's Motif XS board, the MOX6's expansive arsenal of sounds needs no introduction. Here you'll find everything from guitar, drum, bass, brass, woodwind, strings and ethnic percussion sounds to vintage and modern synths. Each voice on the MOX6 layers as many as 8 elements, while Yamaha's eXpanded Articulation (XA) buttons add detail and articulation to must-have instruments like Yamaha's CFIII concert grand piano, or the tear-jerking solo violin. Category Search mode breaks down the library of 1,270 voices, making it easy to find what you need in a hurry. And if your favorite synth voice needs a little customization, it's a piece of cake to use the MOX6's knobs to dial in rich, nuanced effects like chorus, reverb, or delay. Yamaha's Virtual Circuitry Modeling technology recreates the fat, warm sound of a stockpile of vintage effects, just like the effects-processing engine found on Yamaha's flagship Motif boards. There's even a Vocoder effect -- simply plug in a microphone to the 1/4-inch input to run any sound through one of the most dynamic filters on the planet: the human voice.

Performance Presets: Up Your "Fun Factor"

A "Performance" is Yamaha's term for a saved preset with up to 4 voices layered/split across the keyboard, along with an individual arpeggiator for each voice. The Performance Creator buttons lets you build and save your own splits, layers, and arpeggiator settings fast -- without endless menu-scrolling. Or call up any of 256 factory Performance presets, like Psychic Trance, Philharmonic, or Funkhunters. The "fun factor" is huge here -- you'll be jamming along with the MO's arpeggiators in minutes. The 6000+ arpeggio patterns are designed to sound like real instruments, playing the repeating phrases that make your favorite bass lines or guitar parts memorable -- from simple to complex. Grab the set of 4 lower knobs to modify your arpeggio pattern's tempo, octave range, gate time, and more. It's easy to see how Performance presets can spark ideas in the studio, but they're also perfect for stage use: you can save your own splits, layers, and arp settings for fast, easy access during the gig.

Total Integration With Free Cubase AI Software

Like all respectable workstation keyboards, the MOX6 has a built-in 16-track MIDI sequencer, so you can record your music without ever firing up your computer. But since Yamaha knows the future of home recording is in computer-based digital audio workstation (DAW) software, they've bundled a special version of Steinberg Cubase AI that integrates perfectly with your MOX6. Press the "DAW Remote" button, and your MO' becomes an audio interface and control surface for Cubase, transmitting digital audio and MIDI to your computer over one USB cable. The MOX6's sequencer's play, stop and record buttons now control Cubase, and it even comes with two software synths that you can play from the MOX6 with perfectly integrated control. If you already use Cubase, it's a no-brainer.

...Or Use Your MO' With the DAW Of Your Choice

The MOX6 works as a 4-in, 2-out audio and MIDI interface with Digital Performer, Sonar, or Apple Logic. Want to record yourself playing guitar, or singing along live to a beat you've made on the MOX6's sequencer? Just plug in your guitar and microphone to the two 1/4-inch A/D inputs on the back of your MOX6, connect a USB cable, and presto: your MO' is now a 44.1 kHz, 24-bit audio interface ready to record all four channels into your computer. Or try playing the keyboard live to backing tracks from your computer: the MOX6 has a dedicated slider to control the relative volume of your DAW's playback, perfect for performing live with your laptop. Even if you're not a big DAW user, you can still take advantage of USB connectivity, using Yamaha's free editor software to quickly edit your MOX6's voices and Performance settings from the comfort of your computer screen. It's all designed to help you get the most out of your MOX6.

Product Description

For the past decade, Motif synthesizers have been the industry standard for both live performance and studio production. Combining Motif technology with multi-channel USB computer integration technology and bundled VSTs, the MOX 6 and 8 are the most powerful, mobile and affordable Yamaha music workstations ever. They are destined to bring Motif music production to this generation of players and producers.

The MOX combines a MOTIF XS sound engine (with 355MB of Wave ROM, over 6000 arpeggiator patterns, and VCM effects), a MIDI keyboard controller (with AI knobs and extensive DAW/VST control), and advanced multi-channel USB audio computer integration together in one convenient package. Add to that, the built-in direct performance recording, song/pattern sequencing and the included Cubase AI software plus two unique VST instruments packed into lightweight bodies, and you get pound-for-pound the most powerful, mobile and affordable Yamaha music workstation ever.

Motif XS Sound Engine

MOX has the exact same 1270 sounds as the acclaimed MOTIF XS covering a wide variety of music styles. Starting with the Yamaha's acclaimed Concert Grand Piano CF3 grand piano sound; all the acoustic instrument sounds (strings, brass, guitar, bass, drums and more) that made the Motif XS so popular are covered. Of course the 8 element voices, 18 different filter types and extensive effects section are also great for creating the vintage analog and modern digital synthesizer sounds that are used in the electronic and hip hop music scenes. All the sounds you'll need for both live performance and music production in a variety of styles are contained in the MOX.

Performance Mode

You can combine multiple Voices together (up to 4 parts) and play them on one MIDI channel in performance mode, so you can play dynamic layered sounds or play solos along with drums and bass backing tracks. With the interactive Arp engine, even playing simple chords or just one finger give you complete musical performances to spark your creativity. The MOX has 256 preset performances in a wide variety of music style (Rock, World, Hip Hop Jazz, etc).

Easy Operation

Category search mode makes it fast and intuitive get to your ideal instrument. 16 different instrument categories with sub-categories make it quick to get the sound you need. With the Performance Creator (a feature taken from the S90XS, you can easily build up layer or split Performances by a single button press. Start with a Voice you like, press LAYER and a suitable layer sound will be chosen. Press SPLIT and a left hand Bass sound is called up automatically. Go to DRUM ASSIGN and you can play along with the tons of built-in rhythm patterns.

Sequencer Mode

MOX features a built-in sequencer which lets you produce high-quality music productions without the need for a computer or any other external devices. The sequencer features both real-time recording, which records your performance data as you play it, and Step recording, which is suitable for recording precise phrases or other difficult passages. Moreover, you can use the creative inspiration from Performances and directly record them to a Song/Pattern simply by pressing the [REC] button. After creating the outline, in a matter of seconds you can easily edit and refine your song to final completion right on the MOX.

Plenty of Effects

MOX has a wide variety of effects for both the internal keyboard sounds and for use with the A/D inputs including a Vocoder for vocal formant controlled synth sounds. Also Yamaha's proprietary VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) technology that, rather than simply attempting to approach the desired sound using conventional digital audio methods, actually models the original analog circuitry - right down to the last resistor and capacitor. With the MOX, the high-quality effects found in the industry-standard digital recording consoles are at your fingertips.

MOX also includes the award-winning "REV-X" reverb, the same professionally renowned reverb found in the SPX2000.

Audio and MIDI Connections

A single USB cable lets you integrate both Audio and MIDI with your MAC or PC computer. MOX has a built-in 4-in 2-out USB audio interface so you can record MOX's internal sound directly to your MAC or PC. Two dedicated audio inputs can be used to record guitars and vocals into your computer. Compatible with all the major DAWs including Cubase, ProTools, MOTU, and Sonar (in fact any program that support ASIO drivers), you can digitally record the sounds of the MOX and anything connected to the stereo analog inputs directly to your favorite DAW. Not only for music production, the USB connectivity and in-depth keyboard controller functionality lets you also playback and control your VST soft synths via the audio outputs of your MOX, allowing you to easily integrate VSTs into your live stage shows with no extra gear -- just add computer and play.

Bundled Software and Editors

The MOX comes bundled with a 48-track version of Steinberg's Cubase AI software, Prologue, Steinberg's VA soft synth for vintage analog synth sounds and a Yamaha Organ YC-3B "Clonewheel" organ emulation VST. (The installer package of Soft synthesizers is available at yamahasynth.com) Dedicated Editor Software lets you easily edit your MOX just like a soft synthesizer. In fact, by using the MOX Editor VST, you can turn the MOX into a hardware accelerated VSTi. Combined with Media Bay in Cubase, you can categorize and select MOX's sound from a unified universal library of all your VST sounds. There is even a special editor for setting up the MIDI keyboard controls and remote functions. The MOX is one the best examples of Yamaha's commitment to integrating the keyboards into the computer music production environment.

88-note Graded Hammer Standard Action

The MOX8 features an 88-key GHS keyboard. This feature provides authentic, realistic keyboard response-much like the feel of an acoustic piano-with the lower keys being heavy in touch, the higher keys light, and all the natural gradations in between. The MOX6 features a developed, 61-key, semi-weighted keyboard. The keyboard has been designed and adjusted so that you easily and expressively play the rich variety of different sounds in the instrument.

Easy To Carry

The lightweight bodies (MOX6:15.4 lbs, MOX8: 32.6 lbs) make it easy to carry the MOX to rehearsals or gigs and make them pound-for-pound the most powerful workstations Yamaha has ever made. Both models are 50% lighter in weight than the comparable Motif models.

zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
"Great Bang For The Buck"

Overall:
This keyboard sounds excellent. There are keyboards that have better piano sounds, but not for this price. I was a little disappointed in the electric piano section, not the sounds so much as the ability to turn off the vibrato if I wanted. But that's only because I haven't gotten deep into editing the sounds yet. The B3 sounds are the best out of any keyboard I've owned or heard besides maybe the B4 software. They also throw in a pretty decent software organ emulator BTW. The DAW interface works amazing. It makes recording in Cubase really easy because I can control things in Cubase from the keyboard. I love that. It was a learning curve setting it up and getting it all to work but once I did it works perfect. I was disappointed that Cubase didn't save a lot of the settings but now that I know how it just takes a couple minutes to set up a new project. Be prepared to spend time and work things out. As far as the ease of operation at a live gig, it's pretty easy. I like the way you can set your most used sounds in a Favorites area, it makes it really easy to find what I need fast. The same goes for doing on the fly custom splits and layers in a split second! I've had a blast playing it at the last few gigs since I got it. I look forward to making music with this thing for a long time. After doing more than my share of research I know I made the right pick and I wasn't disappointed except for minor things mentioned above. Good job Yamaha.

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"MOX6 Keyboard Synthesizer 61-Key personal review by VinDC"

Sound:
The sound quality is excellent!
Feature:
The features are top notch!
Ease of Use:
Very easy to use...
Quality:
The quality is very good. I'm still getting use to the lightness of the board but it is still an amazing instrument!
Value:
The price is excellent for the features...
Manufacturer Support:
I haven't had to call...
The Wow Factor:
This is a fantastic instrument!
Overall:
I'm satisfied with it for what it does. The piano sounds can be slightly upgraded and the key sensitivity should allow for adjustment. But other than that it is an excellent synth workstation!

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